Android 4.2.2 is out, which means it's time for another edition of Getting To Know Android, the series where I impress/frighten everyone with my borderline-mental-disorder powers of observation. Fair warning: These are going to be very minor changes. If Google moved a pixel, you're going to hear about it.

As usual for GTKA, the old version, 4.2.1, is on the left, and the new version, 4.2.2, is on the right. This edition promises to be pretty screenshot-heavy, so I hope your internet connection is feeling up to it.

The Up Button

This is probably the biggest change in 4.2.2: the Up button now extends to the action bar text. The highlight goes around the carat, icon, and the text; it's all a valid touch location now. This had the bonus effect of saving you an extremely far stretch for one handed use.

That's about it for universal changes, so we'll just jump into an app rundown.

Daydreams

BeanFlinger is now a daydream!

Nevermind. Apparently you have to unlock BeanFlinger via the Easter egg for it to show up. I did on one device, and not the other. Whoops.

If you haven't heard of daydreams, they're a new 4.2 feature. Think "screensaver" and you're most of the way there (sometimes they are interactive). Does anyone out there actually use Daydreams?

In 4.2.1, Daydreams was internally called "Basic Sleep Mode Apps," now it's been renamed to "Basic Daydreams." This is probably the only screen you'll see it called that.

People/Dialer

Here's a tough change to spot: the long-press tool tip for add contact has changed from "New" to "Add Contact." That makes much more sense. There are actually a few spots where they tweaked the long-press tool tips.

Like here - adding a group changed from "New" to "Add Group."

And here - "Favorites" is now called "Favorites and all contacts."

Clock

The clock app has seen margin adjustments in a few places. There is now a little more space between the digital clock and the tabs, and the clock and the date. You can see this same spacing adjustment just about everywhere the clock displays.

This one is so subtle it needs to be animated! The timer keypad has seen the 2 outer columns pushed out, along with the backspace button. The line between the timer and the keypad is longer, too. It matches the bottom line now.

Stopwatch laps are now labeled "#1" instead of "Lap 1." The spacing between all the text is a lot tighter, too.

All of the settings headers for the clock app have been toned down from THE SHOUTY ALL-CAPS VERSION to a more normal sentence case.

Email

Email is another app with less-than-stellar long-press tooltips. The left and right arrows used to be blank, now they say "newer" and "older."

Face Unlock

Here's another one that's so subtle it needs to be animated: The Face Unlock setup now has a bolder font. Every screen in the setup has changed like this. I'm proud of this one.

Gallery

There are 3 new borders in the Gallery's editor (all of these shots are all from 4.2.2), internally they're called "Grunge," "Sumi e," and "Tape."

You're going to see this one in a few places. "Choose ringtone" has been changed to "Sound" and displays the ringtone name, and Vibrate has changed from a pop-up menu to a check box.

The Vibrate menu used to have "Always," "Only when silent," and "Never" as options, but now you're only given "on" and "off" from the checkbox.

Strangely they removed the help text under "Notifications." That might be a mistake.

Lock Screen

The add widget button on the lock screen now has a proper on-touch effect. It turns blue.

You can also no longer use the volume keys from the lock screen to change the ringtone volume. They only work when music is playing.

Phone

The Phone app! The "Ringtone" settings header is now "Ringtone & Vibrate." Thrilling.

Just like in Messages, "Ringtone" is now "Sound," and "Vibrate" is a checkbox.

Settings

In the settings "Default notification" has changed to "Default notification sound." I can just hear the Google directive when they were building this release: "Add 'Sound' to everything!"

This is the setup screen for a pattern lock. Do you see the difference? Do you see it? 4.2.2 added a colon at the end of "pattern." BEST. UPDATE. EVER.

They also killed the lock pattern tutorial.

The Sync settings screen changed the account email from a weird grey to white, and added a little more padding in the email area. The color change was definitely needed, 4.2.1 looks like my account is disabled.

Setup Wizard

Google Talk

There are about a million text differences here. The "IM Notifications" description removed "when an IM arrives" from the end, "Video chat notifications" chopped off "when invited to a voice or video chat," "Notification ringtone" has changed to "Sound," again, and Vibrate is now a checkbox, again.

Another Android@Home Sighting!

Here's an interesting submission (via XBIRDIE98. Thanks!) Android@Home has been spotted in the comments of a diff file of a 4.2.2 change:

Conclusion

That's about it for 4.2.2. The one other thing they changed that I really can't get a picture of is the color temperature of the screen. It's a little cooler. Mostly though, this was a few text consistency changes and a little bit of appearance polish - it's just an 0.0.1 update. Polish is great, but hopefully the next release is a little meatier. Wake me when Google I/O arrives.

Ron loves everything related to technology, design, and Google. He always wants to talk about "the big picture" and what's next for Android, and he's not afraid to get knee-deep in an APK for some details. Expect a good eye for detail, lots of research, and some lamenting about how something isn't designed well enough.

My lockscreen clock (stock) keeps going back and forth between centered and right aligned, with the hour alternating between bold and not bold. Every time I turn the screen on and off, it goes back and forth. This is happening on my GNex and my N10.

Nicholas Carter

You have the lock screen policy app to disable widgets and the camera correct? Enable the widgets and camera and it should stop.

RedPandaAlex

I don't have the lock screen policy app. I just have a corporate email account that disables lockscreen widgets.

temp

BeanFlinger was in Daydreams in 4.2.1. It's dependent on whether you've activated the bean flinger easter egg. I have a Nexus 7 on 4.2.2 that shows BeanFlinger in Daydreams, a Nexus 10 on 4.2.2 that doesn't, and a Nexus 4 on 4.2.1 that does.

http://www.androidpolice.com/author/ron-amadeo/ Ron Amadeo

Oh. Ok, that explains it, I must have done that on one phone but not the other. Thanks.

OmarioAmriky

BEST: UPDATE: EVER:
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

http://twitter.com/IamPeePay Tomáš Petrík

Reminds me of Barney on HIMYM - Best husband ever, best husband ever!

JonJJon

Clearly the Android 4.2.2 update was a legendary one :)

http://twitter.com/IamPeePay Tomáš Petrík

You mean legen - wait for it! - dary! :)

LiamBryant

Legen - wait for it...and you better keep waiting for it because you're not going to get this update until December - dary

http://twitter.com/Michael97F Michael Fordham

I WAS JUST THINKING THAT! Someone please make that GIF!

Athishay

Ron I wouldn't be very sure about the 'borderline' :D
Good stuff man. Keep it coming.

http://twitter.com/nirvanaman_1985 sam

Lots of u.i tweaks then. I'd rather know how many of the more serious bugs such as bluetooth audio are fully or partially fixed. 4.2.x just seems so poor compared to 4.1.x

Update Schmupdate

Bluetooth audio streaming still not fixed.

http://twitter.com/arghness Alex

In Google Talk:

> The "IM Notifications" description adds a "when an IM arrives" to the end

It looks like it's been removed, not added, from your screenshots.

Also, I spotted that "when invited to a voice or video chat" has also been removed from that same screenshot.

http://www.androidpolice.com/author/ron-amadeo/ Ron Amadeo

Right. Thanks.

Sergey Otro

Did they fix camera lag on orientation change?

http://www.androidpolice.com/author/ron-amadeo/ Ron Amadeo

I think the best way to fix that would be to NOT have an orientation change. It's pointless on a camera.

So no.

Sergey Otro

It's hard to avoid orientation change when you're making photo of some document, which lies on the table. There always will be accidential orientation changes. It is my use-case, and it's pretty critical for me, but not for the most of users, so I totally agree with your opinion.

http://www.androidpolice.com/author/ron-amadeo/ Ron Amadeo

I mean, they don't need to rotate the camera feed. You can reorient the buttons (which is what 4.1 did) but there's no point in spinning the entire camera feed, it will always be right.

Sergey Otro

Oh, I misunderstood your first message.

Yes, instead of recreating activity they should just rotate buttons. It's funny, but this fix takes only few strings of code.

nickmorgs

Still waiting for an OTA update to 4.2.2. on my Nexus 4 :o(

Brat-Sampson

I do love these. Such a delightful level of OCD that somehow makes them incredibly readable. Also otherwise I'd never really know what the updates did...

http://twitter.com/ericcamil Eric Camil Jr

This is great, Visually I have no real reason to upgrade as I am still on 4.1 after getting 4.2 and watching my battery and lag become a problem. This much detail though is another reason I keep coming back to AP.

Kurt Gomez

hey ron... great GTKA!!!! i look forward to these every new update... just a couple of mistypes on your part... the sync settings... account has been changed to white... you wrote blue...

You're just too excited about the new update, Relax, Take a deep breath. ;)

http://www.facebook.com/pravs.bsb Pravs Bsb

All these things are fine but still bluetooth issue persists..Google still have not fixed it whats wrong with them?

Update Schmupdate

Bluetooth issue persists on my Nexus 7 as well. It skips LESS after the 4.2.2 update, but it still skips. Pandora, Tune In and Google Play Music (especially this one!) are all still useless until this is fixed.

dobbsy

I'm curious what the Bluetooth issue is as I haven't seen it reported. I tried a pair of those Parro Zik bluetooth headphones and there was a very dim hum in the background of all audio. I ended up returning the headphones.

If you're on yakju or takju I think there is a way to manually update found on XDA, no unlocked bootloader or root needed.

http://www.facebook.com/archercc Ryan Stewart

SToked about the volume buttons not working while locked. Before it appeared it was only when the screen was on but it seemed too easy to modify the volume. At least it didnt seem to be volume level but off->vibrate->on which I could see would be appealing to someone.

Eww. I guess that's a Nexus 7 only thing? I never noticed it on a phone.

http://twitter.com/dje_tn dje_tn

Yeah that screenshot is taken from my Nexus 7, I don't have any other Nexus device.

Floflo

No it also does it on my Nexus 4 with Android 4.2.1

Max Barlow

Probably changed more than Apple did from iOS 5 to iOS 6 though...

http://www.anivision.org/ Christopher Bailey (Xcom923)

B00M! right in the groin

MacVities

Good to see extreme polish. Android 4.2 Jellybean is now extremely polished, more so than the hacky mess that is iOS6, where hacks upon hacks upon hacks mean that you can unlock an iPhone with certain sequences.

Probably they were meant as an easter egg or april's fool. But got accidentally delivered as mainstream.

Chris Smith

Mapples

http://twitter.com/s99nj S. Ali

Yet somehow the best apps still launch on iOS first.

GGuser

I think you're just changing topic now. He is talking about system, not apps and developers.

Obamney

Oh you are so right! Google always launches their apps on iOS first.
"Double face plant"

Adrianoid

Minecraft PE updates come on android FIRST

http://www.mysgs2.com My SGS2

Attention to detail is key. I love the semi-colon vs no semi-colon on the pattern lock screen. Can you imagine everyone sitting around the Google table and little shy Johnny pipes up... "We missing a semi-colin on the pattern lock screen... Lol

Can Altas

Dude.. you made my day! :-D

moelsen8

some of these changes make me scratch my head. taking away the option to vibrate only when silent? also the pattern tutorial? why? these things seem very useful/helpful.

reminds me of when they removed the ability to use your volume rocker to go from completely silent to vibrate only.

abhisahara

In Google Talk changes under the Voice and Video Chat they still call it ringtone instead of the "Sound" as against to the overall naming scheme they introduced to ringtone.

http://www.androidpolice.com/author/ron-amadeo/ Ron Amadeo

Yeah, they are really inconsistent with that. "Ringtone" was fine, anyway.

connormxy

I think it looks pretty intentional, as an attempt to differentiate Sounds from Ringtones, which are for calls that ring that you must accept or decline within a short period. They also removed the repeated reference to voice chat, so I think the basis of this movement may be to let those headings have more power to speak for themselves.

Freak4Dell

But they changed the label for the true ringtone to read "sound" also.

connormxy

Nope, look again, that was for voicemail notifications. The screen above shows phone, and under "Ringtone and Vibrate," you set the phone's ringtone for calls.

Freak4Dell

Ah, you're right. My mistake. It makes sense, then.

http://www.diaz-caro.info/ Alejandro

You should wait for the 4.2.2.1, they will correct it (and maybe add a colon at some other place).

ArKain

How dare they release a polish update. The nerve on Google. And to go from 4.2.1 to 4.2.2? We were all expecting that extra 0.0.1 to add a metric ton of features, the sarcastic tone of this shitty article is clearly justified.

http://www.androidpolice.com/author/ron-amadeo/ Ron Amadeo

I didn't mean to be sarcastic towards the updates, just the fact that I'm covering them. Polish is good.

Steve

Well I just read your article and it didn't come off as sarcastic in the slightest. Thanks for posting your findings, and hopefully this UK'er will have the OTA update pushed soon!

http://www.ronakg.com/ Ronak Gandhi

This article can be used as "Spot the difference" game.

http://www.androidpolice.com/author/ron-amadeo/ Ron Amadeo

I was thinking of doing that. Just no text, a string of pictures, and we can keep score at the end.

The_Chlero

Which will lead us inevitably to the "Spot the Difference Android Police Drinking Game"

Larizard

No, I still want to see the "Everyone takes a shot every time Eric clears his throat Drinking Game"!

heat361

I want a Google now day dream :)

http://www.anivision.org/ Christopher Bailey (Xcom923)

That's actually a great idea.

White Pawn

Just a general question for Daydream users. Isn't it super unhealthy for the device?

Barton82

If you have an AMOLED display it certainly is.

White Pawn

No, I didn't mean only for the display. I meant for the battery. And also, for CPU etc. because of being in use for much longer than normal use.

Rox

You are talking like that you are going to stick with Nexus 4 forever.

Ever since I got my hands on it I have been wishing 'When the next one will come in' :D

Freak4Dell

What do you mean? For the battery?

Garrison Boone

If I'm not mistaken, 4.2.2 also changed the default vibration pattern as well as the addition of a next alarm panel in quick settings for the third party alarm application that I use.

http://www.facebook.com/roi.eisenkot Roï Eisenkot

What about the most important thing of all - nexus 7 's constant stutter... Is it fixed?

(For example, hit the app drawer, change tablet orientation, and then hit the home key. Stutterrrr)

JonJJon

Not gonna lie but I do think my Nexus 7 is running better since the update. However this could just be me wanting it so bad that a placebo effect has happened lol

http://www.facebook.com/roi.eisenkot Roï Eisenkot

I sure hope this is the case... Recently I've abstained from recommending the nexus 7 to friends who asked which small tablet I think they should buy, because it almost feels like a lie to recommend the nexus 7 with its stutter... I never thought it'll get to this.

JonJJon

I honestly do think a lot of the stutter has gone, I just did a test of opening and closing several apps in quick succession and very little lag occured for most of the animations and flicking up and down, such as the settings list, seems to be just that tad more responsive. It's probably not as improved as I'm making out but it definitely has gotten better.

Buddy you've left out my favorite part of the update, I daresay the biggest... the quick toggles are now actual toggles and not shortcuts to the settings menu... just tap and hold wifi or bluetooth toggles to know what am talking about...

If you do edit your article to add this hope you can give me credit :D (Google me)

Barton82

Read the 2nd paragraph: "We already covered the big stuff like the ADB whitelist, the new download notification, Quick Settings toggles, and sounds, so we'll skip those for this article."

Yeah, I'm sure he'll get right on that. We all want to see you get credit for not being able to read.

Go take a look at the second paragraph of the article again.

http://www.youtube.com/kimirPORTALS kimir

I wish they kept the ability to change volume while at the lockscreen. Is that only when a pass code is present or in general?

Freak4Dell

Pretty minor changes overall, but at least they add to the polish of the app. It's like they were trying to do a final draft copy of 4.2.1.

I do wish they would change that red font in the stopwatch, though, and some of these decisions seem to be a bit backwards. I think "ringtone" was fine for certain areas, and losing the options for vibrate sucks.

Al

Your powers of observation are really strong, Google should hide a few Easter eggs in their releases to test you :p

James

flash seems to work better with this update.

Spotter

Things i've noticed on Galaxy nexus 4.2.2:

1. notifications sound is still oddly low

2.Gnex is still missing emoji keyboard

3. It's still impossible to select any VPN to use the always-on vpn function.

Can anyone on 4.2.1 try this?
Go into menu - swipe to any page - go back to home - go back to menu.
Does it remamber the page you were on?
if not this may be the biggest change cause 4.2.2 does.

Ed Baker

NO BEANFLINGER! The daydreamer option... Not on the n10 running 4.2.2. My son's n7 has 'beanflinger' but not the n10, so they are different versions of the same OS!

http://www.androidpolice.com/author/ron-amadeo/ Ron Amadeo

Go mash the Android version field in About Phone -> Status and you will have beanflinger.

nexus guy

They actually blocked the 4g chip set so you can't turn on 4g by calling the number anymore which doesn't matter because there was not a booster with it anyways

viba

When I read that sentence about the added colon after 'pattern', I couldn't figure out what connection a lockscreen pattern might have with the human digestive system.. Med student through and through, I guess!

vitriolix

I really appreciate the overwhelming OCD that goes into these posts

Tgbigmac

The biggest change to everyone in Canada..... No more LTE on the Nexus 4

Daffe

I also found a change after updating to 4.2.2 on my gNex;

When i turn my screen on, on the lockscreen (pin code) the clock style alternates between two styles.

Daffe

Also, the clock in the upper right corner is not displayed in one layout!

Taher Rangwala

Also the Launcher shadow at the bottom has been beefed up. Makes dock icons looks a little less ridiculous against lighter backgrounds.

skeeterfood

Most important fix is that my N7 no longer reboots itself twice a day. Haven't seen a random reboot since I updated.

Sorian

Two things: First, Noticed the subject line at the very top for email must have changed as well, 4.2.1 is 2 lines, 4.2.2 is 1 line. Second is more a complaint, I can understand fixing the lane in the timer to match, but why not leave the columns alone? Now it isn't equal spacing.

Aditya

Maybe you didn't notice a bigger change... You can now put 16 apps in a folder (Earlier it was 12)

lbrfabio

Just updated and I noticed that Play Music in landscape is not in fullscreen like it used to be

http://www.facebook.com/llennyyyy Andy ‘Lenny’ Mclean

you mean to tell me that with another update my nexus 4 still sucks at handling my HD vids? My s2 which was inferior played mkv's flawlessly!

Ivon Liu

Polish is good. I feel that with 4.0, 4.1, and 4.2 Android has seen enough feature upgrades to last a while. 4.2 brought some interesting features and UI improvements to the table, but was extremely buggy. 4.2.2 seems to have fixed all that and brought back the stability of 4.1.2. If Google could learn anything from this, it's to have KLP follow the path of 4.1, not 4.2.

mikeym0p

When you add a second gmail account you can specify what you want to sync BEFORE it starts syncing. You dont have to race to the accounts menu anymore.

Got it the day it came out for my GSM Nexus. 9 hours of data on, constant video and picture taking, uploading all of it to Facebook and it only drained to 49%

Simon Belmont

Not a lot of user facing updates, but desirable nonetheless. Polish is polish.

I'm guessing the under the hood/backend changes are what really make this update an update. Good article, as usual, Ron.

TudalooMoFo

Am I the only one who has GPS issues and server issues in the play market on the nexus 4 after the 4.2.2 update?

Sootie

I like that android is using proper capitalization. Microsoft seems to be going backwards in office 2013 they seem to be going with CAPS LOCK FTW!, it irks me, I find it irksome!

http://about.me/jasontsay Jason Tsay

Is it just me or do the shadows/gradients at the top and bottom of the stock launcher seem darker?

seedar

Bluetooth is better but still broken on galaxy nexus...... :-(

Oliver

Has anyone noticed a change of Notification vibration? On my Galaxy Nexus, after the update, the "2 short vibrations" appear to be much longer than before, the first sometimes even longer than the second.

Camera access from lock-screen is gone. Although this may have happened with the 4.2.1 u/g

kyle

What's the problem with Bluetooth? I have a Bluetooth dock and headphones and have never had a problem with connection. Even after the 4.2.2 update.

Gaspar M

Problem with my Bluetooth is when I'm listening tho music through Google play and the screen goes off, the music starts skipping. It stops if I turn it back on. This started when I updated from 4.1 to 4.2. Haven't tried it yet with 4.2.2...

ST7

My GalaxyNexus just got the message to download the update so thanks for this. (Are there only 2 phones with most recent versions - the 2 nexus phones? i wish the next nexus would be equivalent to S best); anyway - I wish when an update is issue, Google (or Apple in ios case) would just send you a link you can click on to find out whats new or changed. Otherwise people think somethings broken or they are only using about 20% of what the device and OS can do. Most people arent following these blogs and Ive spoken to people who had Androids and not a single one knew what OS they had and they had never heard terms like ics or jb or gb

Gaspar M

Anybody know if this fixed the skipping when listening to music with Google play? Problem I've been having since 4.2 is music skipping when connected to any Bluetooth device when the screen shuts off. There's also the auto brightness that constantly adjusts the screen brightness even though there's no change in the ambient light.... Lol! I'm typing in the dark and my screen keeps changing brightness...

rohit

did they fix the keyboard bug ?

Guest

The E-Mail application, when setup with Exchange is having a slight issue.

http://www.facebook.com/gedeon.charles Charles Gedeon

Actually if you long press WiFi in the quick settings it actually turns on and off now!

Keep Ya Nut Down

It has now stopped SkyGO again - Do Apple have any apps that are not compatable with the Iphone??? There seems to be soo many with the Up to date androids.

Please HELP just got a Nexus 4 my first android phone and cannot workout how to save a photo sent to me by text

Tony

Love these nuanced breakdowns. Keep 'em coming.

mike

4.2.2 is awesome. I actually like it better running from a custom ROM on the gs3 though. Feels more fluid.... Also, pie controls are awesome, especially for you nexus 4 users. I would actually say a custom ROM with pie controls are neccesary when using 4.2.2 on nexus. Either way this is all great but bring me my gs4 and 5.0, I'm ready.

http://www.facebook.com/cakra.diaz.pratama Будет Филлипс

Please someone upload the 4.2.2 DeskClock.apk and Email.apk

http://www.facebook.com/cakra.diaz.pratama Будет Филлипс

PLease :(

santhi

what are the disadvantages of 4.2.2?

Niyar

Can i change os 4.1 to 4.2 on samsung s2?

Sara

My Galaxy Nexus will not vibrate when I press the home button. What do I do to fix this?

Sharon

Any idea how I can delete a message stuck in my outbox? I can not open it, when I try to select it I get this:
"Cannot open message. Message is currently being sent and is unable to be opened".

soppa

only thing that bothers me is than i cant C my phone contacts and i cant but different sms sound to contacs (i hav but my wife sms sound different etc. ) but not now i cant only i can but is different Ringtones to contacs..

turboeddy

Since I updated to 4.22 I can not use screenshot anymore :-(

Jack

Thank you for the detailed help you have given, regarding the Jellybean 4.2.2. It has helped/answered a lot of questions for me.

sudhir datta

how to change owner details in setting screen ?

http://www.kertongroup.com Derek Kerton

For this, AT&T pushed an update and spoiled my root? Sheesh. Here's my version of a complete changelog for 4.2.2, editing out any changes that don't really matter:

1) Disables root.

scott

on older version of the jellybean I could adjust brightness even when its below 5%, is there a way to do it on this version??

fallingdowntherabbithole

I find that the music player disappears from the drop-down notifications if I pause it and the screen turns off. Does anyone know how to keep it from doing that?

Lashawna Lenoir

CAN YOU HELP ME WITH A LOCK SCREEN ISSUE?

Ndeshi-pax Michael Amupolo

4.2.2 for GT-9082:
**does not screen shot. "Printscreen"
**messages do not show to which sim card the sms was sent to
**

paul

Removed support for ALL of my free fonts from the Tab2 after uodate from 4.1 to 4.2. Tuffy, king, fertigo, kyrila sans, rehotalko, all no longer supported. Only paid fonts are allowed. Fook crap